I applied
for the Middle
Eastern Studies Program's (MESP) 2016 Graduate Student Summer Research Grant to continue conducting preliminary research on a project
that began in winter 2015-2016. During the winter preliminary ethnographic research visit,
I gathered data
in order to inform my
future yearlong ethnographic project in the United Arab Emirates.
As an anthropologist interested in the experiences of Muslim American migrants
in Sharjah, UAE,
I use the ethnographic methods
of in-depth interviewing and participant observation. Using
these methods, I proposed to MESP that I would collect data,
which would allow me to start answering my research question: What are the conceptions of citizenship held by
people in the United Arab Emirates? This,
in turn, had two subsidiary questions: Is it important for residents in the UAE to have a defined
idea of citizenship? Are there advantages or disadvantages in assuming citizenship in the UAE?

It was my understanding before conducting summer
research that there were two groups of Muslim American
migrants living in Sharjah:
a group that was invited
to move to Sharjah by the Sharjah
royal family, and another group consisting of Muslim
Americans who had migrated using
networks formed on the internet
or in U.S. mosques. I was under
the impression that the
group with connections to the royal family
possessed more privileges than the group without royal-family ties, such as constant funding,
cheaper housing, and permanent sponsorship. Yet, the more privileged group
knew they would never receive Emirati citizenship. These observations led me to consider that perhaps citizenship was not necessary
for some people
to live secure and fulfilling lives in the UAE.

Thanks to funding provided by MESP, I was able
to test my assumptions. This funding allowed
me to stay in Sharjah
amongst my informants for a longer
period of time.
The extended period permitted more observations, as well as more in-depth
recorded interviews with informants. Many of these informants I knew from the three years I lived in the UAE from 2010-2013 and met during winter
preliminary research two years later.
I found that
this summer, informants were more open
to sharing sensitive information about how they came to live in the UAE. For example, during
an in-depth interview with an African-American convert, Zahid (a pseudonym), he explained that his relationship with a royal
family member granted
him a life-long position
working with the royal court.
His position came with additional duties to fulfill beyond his job description. The primary, but not
official, job this royal family member wanted him to perform was dawah (invitation to practice Islam) for Emirati
citizens. As instructed by the royal
family, Zahid came to believe
that his main purpose living
in the UAE was to perform dawah.

This interview
led me to question why it might be important for the UAE to import Islam from the United
States; after all,
the Arabian Peninsula is the birthplace of this monotheistic religion; and why would these Muslim Americans agree to the addi
tional labor of performing dawah when
they can never
obtain UAE citizenship? These questions began
to guide my research
as I heard similar accounts
of Muslim Americans
as da'i
(those who perform dawah) from
many other informants and from at least one royal family
member. With this new insight, I began
to recognize the need to adjust my research direction. These new ideas that I encountered contribute to notions
of citizenship, but in
ways that focus on the role of the state as represented by Sharjah royal family members and on the duties that one must perform in order
to "belong." Therefore, my adjusted primary question for my research
is: Why do these Muslim
Americans agree to perform dawah for
the Sharjah royal
family members despite their inability to obtain Emirati
citizenship? Subsidiary questions include: Why do these Muslim
Americans choose to live
in Sharjah, as opposed to another
Emirate or another Muslim majority country entirely; and why do Sharjah
royal family members choose to use Muslim Americans
to spread Islam
in a Muslim majority
country? Without the funding provided
by the Middle Eastern
Studies Program, it is unlikely
that I would have been
able to formulate these new and improved questions for my dissertation project.